Destined Cadets
by offtofeelthings
Summary: Jack and Rapunzel have seen the unimaginable. When they meet, they are both training to kill the monsters that has so deeply scarred them both. Set in the Attack on Titan universe. (You do not have to have watched the show to follow the story, though it would help to understand.)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey beautiful people! I watched Attack on Titan and this had to happen. **

**If you would like me to continue it say so in the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the ROTBTD characters or the Attack on Titan universe.**

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><p>Rapunzel and Jack excelled in the first week of training.<p>

Pitch, the man assigned to the newbies, was especially good at instilling fear into the hearts of the kids that had thought themselves braver than most of the adolescents, but when they went to their separate cabins and collapsed on their just barely uncomfortable mattresses, they were attacked by nightmares of titans and death.

The ones like Jack and Rapunzel, who had seen the destruction and felt the pain first hand, did not feel threatened by this man. They had already been acquainted with the real threat.

Rapunzel comforted the people who woke up screaming; she was good at coaxing the panicky girls into resuming their restless sleep. For the younger girls she sang, and though the older (tougher) ones didn't like to admit, Rapunzel's smooth voice and soft melodies helped quell their fears.

Jack however, had no patience for sobbing boys. He would shove his too thin pillow over his white hair and take a guess on how many of the boys would be in the wagon to return home the next morning. Typically he allowed a few snide comments to leave his lips before heading to early training the next morning.

All the ones who had someone they loved at home usually didn't make it very long. They knew they had something safe and precious to return to, and that thought lead them to their departure.

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><p>Jack and Rapunzel didn't notice each other until they were paired up for hand to hand combat. Jack took one look at the scrawny thirteen year old (a year younger than him) girl standing in front of him. Short brown hair, innocent doe eyes, and her fists raised before her small freckled face, he didn't know how he would ever be able to fight her. His fists in front of his face he stared at her with his piercing blue eyes, and before he had thought about throwing a punch she was moving so fast he hardly saw her. All of the air was knocked out of his lungs as he hit the dirt ground, and the small girl was straddling his waist with her elbow pressed to his throat. He was coughing and laughing, and he hardly had the time to be embarrassed enough to glare at the people openly gaping at this minor takedown. He stared at her face with a new light and in her eyes noticed things he hadn't noticed before.<p>

Pain?

Hope.

_Fight_.

After she removed her elbow and the rest of her body, she held out a hand to him; he accepted it even though he didn't need the help. (Over the years he had grown to love the warm touch of other living humans.)

"What is your name?"

"Rapunzel."

"I am Jack." He held up his hands again and for the first time in a couple years a playful smirk etched on to his pale lips. "And this time, I'm going to win." She giggled as her fists went up as well. Jack realized that everything she said sounded like a song.

"I seriously doubt it."

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><p>Jack looked across the line of people who were at the top of their class. He didn't talk to most of them, but a few he had grown close to.<p>

Hiccup, no one suspected would make it close to the top; in his first year he had one leg and was so skinny bigger boys would give him their meat because they felt bad. Over the few years of training he had buffed up minimally, and his knack for strategy was most likely the reason he was standing there, position number four.

Merida, everyone knew would be where she was. She was fierce and her hair (that she refused to cut) only added to that image. Fellow cadets just called her red. She was standing pridefully in the number three spot. Though she thought she had earned number one, she had never seen an actual titan.

Rapunzel was exactly the opposite of what people would think when they first looked at her. Hers and Jack's relationship had toyed dangerously with the line between romantic relationship and friendship. They were both unfamiliar with the concept of love, and now (at the age of sixteen) Rapunzel was still adorable and her short brown hair continued to frame her face perfectly. You would think she just barely slipped by training until induction, but upon closer inspection you would see in her eyes the true reason she was ranked so high. Number one.

Jack, who was standing rigidly in number two was maybe a little bitter that she had beat him out, but he knew they were in the spots they deserved.

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><p>Later, when the four of them were on the wall celebrating the end of their training; Jack sat down next to Rapunzel and threw his legs over the side. Having a fear of heights was a death wish in their profession.<p>

"Hey, Punz?" Her eyes were cast down to the ground that was so far away.

"Yes?" Many of their fellow cadets were laughing and celebrating with their friends. The sound of Merida and Hiccup's incessant arguing faded as they walked away from them. It was almost time for lunch. Rapunzel envied all of the new inductees who made it through training with their naïvety and innocence in tact. Her eyes shifted from side to side as she watched their smiling relieved faces. Rapunzel and Jack new it would only get harder from here. Especially for Jack, he did not wish for a life inside the walls.

Jack released a loud sigh. "I am not going to guard from the inside. I want to be a part of the scout regiment." She knew it was coming. That's all he ever talked about. She shook her head and looked up at his pale angular face. Rapunzel knew he was asking her to come with him. She also knew what their relationship would turn to if she went with him. Looking at his face now she knew in her heart what she would answer before her brain could form a sensible thought. Her heart along with his was becoming dangerous. _Very_ dangerous.

"Then I am going with you." Jack looked at her and gave her something that he had always reserved for only Rapunzel. A genuinely happy smile.

"I knew you'd say that."

The seconds following that statement were long and full of blushing faces as Jack reached for her hand, and curled his cold fingers around her warm ones.

"I think we were destined to fight titans together, Punz."

Small giggles left her mouth, "If ya had a chance to change ye fate, would ya?"

"I'm telling Mer you've been making fun of her. She'll kick your ass." Rapunzel lifted her unoccupied arm and flexed her biceps.

"We'll see if the number three can take the number one."

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><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading! **

**I am leaving it incomplete; it's up to you lovelies if I continue it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I have had this done for a few months now, and honestly just forgot to put it up here. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Tangled, Rise of the Guardians, or Attack on Titan. Or actually any ROTBTD characters.**

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

When the titan came, Rapunzel had allowed herself a couple seconds of gut wrenching fear before she replaced it with her will to fight.

In an instant she was using her 3D maneuvering gear to fly through the air. It wasn't until she got to the wall that she realized what they were truly facing. The colossal titan.

Standing at the edge of the stone wall, she could never have imagined that in her lifetime she would stand face to face with titan, and she had never hoped for it to be this abnormal. Its entire body was red muscle, and as she stood even with its teeth she knew that when it came to this titan in particular, success was unattainable.

Panic swelled in her chest as she watched the titan pull one of its feet back. She crouched down for balance when the wall began to quake and dust and stone permeated the previously clear air. She was blinking and coughing as rough hands pulled her up.

"Rapunzel! We have to go." Jack was pulling her hand towards the bustle of people behind her. When she turned to look back towards the titan he was gone.

"He kicked a hole in wall, Jack!" Shouts were erupting across the wall as cadets and scouts alike split into their guards and regiments to prepare for evacuation and defense of Wall Rose. Rapunzel was fighting off the images that were surfacing in her head from five years ago. Images from the fall of Wall Maria.

"It won't be like last time, Rapunzel. We can help people!" His hand squeezed hers as they reached their commanding officer and were pushed different ways. Rapunzel was sent to fight with the elites, and Jack was directed towards the guards full of the new top initiates, including Merida and Hiccup.

They lost sight of each other almost immediately as they were sent to do what they had trained for years to do.

They were humans designed for killing and protecting.

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><p>In the first few minutes of blood shed, two kinds of people became easily distinguishable.<p>

Some people fell apart in the heat of the battle. They ran from their duty where they were needed most because they had given in to how afraid they were. They had let fear surround them and fill them with such a sense of uneasiness, that they had thought the only way they could survive was by hiding.

Then there were the people that brandished the fear like it was a weapon. They turned it to anger, and they became dangerous. Their way of survival was fighting.

One thing Hiccup was certain of as they flew through the air with their 3D maneuvering gear, was that Jack was a fighter. He faced his problems head on, and he led their defense guard into battle with fiery words and tense muscles. Merida followed with gusto, as they split into two separate groups to face down two titans. An eight meter and an eleven meter.

Hiccup was also certain that he was not a fighter.

He followed a safe distance behind Jack, and he had watched in horror as the titan swung its clumsy hand at his friend and threw him to the side as if he was nothing.

Hiccup knew he was not a fighter when all he could do was scream in terror as he realized that the titan had taken one of Jack's arms.

Hiccup knew he was not a fighter when the titan reached for Hiccup and the air left his lungs. He was being pulled towards the titans gnarly teeth and all he could do was shake in the iron grip. He screamed and screamed, but he knew none of his friends could save him. Then the titan tossed him in the air like he weighed nothing and Hiccup was in his mouth. His hands clawed at the titan's tongue to try and catch on anything that might save him, when instead something was grabbing his forearm. A cold hand covered in blood and sweat flung Hiccup out of the mouth from between the teeth.

Hiccup knew as he landed on a stone rooftop yelling and a little scraped up, but otherwise unharmed, that he was not a fighter. He knew it as he watched Jack hold the jaw of the titan open with his one arm and his strength he was drawing from adrenaline.

"Hiccup!" Jack was shouting at him, but all Hiccup could do was stare wide eyed. Jack's eyes were full of fury and terrified tears and his arms were quaking. "You have to find Rapunzel." Hiccup scrambled to stand up, but he couldn't trust his own arms as he fell and slipped repeatedly. "Hiccup!" Jack was baring his teeth and his foot was slipping farther and farther down the titan's tongue. "You have to fight!"

Hiccup knew he was not a fighter when the titan's jaw snapped shut and Jack was gone.

Hiccup knew he was not a fighter because Hiccup knew he could not kill.

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><p>Rapunzel had killed two titans when she told her leader that she was going to her friends. His protests were paid no attention as she set off towards the wall. She was flying over rooftops as her equipment clanked against the top of her thighs and the leather straps strained across her chest.<p>

When she reached a rooftop that ended against Wall Rose she landed gracefully, and looked at all the solemn faces surrounding her. Most had been celebrating a few hours prior, laughing and dancing with their friends. The same friends that were probably dead now.

"Punz?" The familiar deeply accented voice was comforting as she turned to her left to see Merida, Red.

"Mer?" The girl had one scrape across her forehead and a few rips in her jacket, but Rapunzel hardly noticed as she saw the look in her eyes and the track of tears on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Punz." Rapunzel panicked as she glanced again at all the faces staring back at her, and the few people sitting against the wall. Hiccup was amongst them. Slumped over himself with his head in his hands. Rapunzel pushed past Merida and ran to him. She fell to her knees and her gear hit the stone beside her. She reached for Hiccup's hands, and carefully pulled them away from his head. When he looked up at her complete agony was deep in his green eyes.

"Where is Jack?" Her voice was strong and steady, but the loudness spoke volumes. Hiccup opened and closed his mouth as he tried to find the right words. "Hiccup!" Rapunzel shook his hands and her eyes were open so wide he was scared to look into them.

"He.." Hiccup shook his head as he took a deep breath, "He's gone!"

"What do you mean, he's gone?"

"He saved me! He was swallowed by a titan. He told me to fight, but I couldn't do it! I can't kill. I couldn't kill the titan, Rapunzel! And now Jack is gone, and it's all my fault!" Hiccup had pulled his hands away from Rapunzel and pounded his fists against the rock ground until his knuckles were bleeding and Merida was in between him and Rapunzel, begging him to stop.

Rapunzel had stood and pushed her hands against her chest as her breath began to catch in her throat. She knew what it was to lose someone you loved, she'd been stuck grieving her entire life, but this was different.

With her family she had been born into the love. It was innate.

It was different with Jack. She didn't love him since the beginning; she had to learn how to do it until it became her breath. Now, standing in the middle of a battle with death and blood all around her she couldn't breathe. For a couple minutes she hadn't allowed her lungs the relief of oxygen as she fell to her knees with her fists punching her chest repeatedly to stop the ache in her heart. She pressed her forehead against the ground as the first unwanted tear surfaced in her green eyes.

When she finally sucked in a haggard gulp of air it resounded on the rooftop as a sob, and the girls who had made it through training because of her comforting abilities watched painfully as she pushed her torso up off the ground and her nails dug into the pebbles and dust below her. Hiccup stood and lifted Rapunzel up only to crush her against his chest. Merida found a new fear as she watched the girl that had always been the strongest turn so vulnerable.

"I'm sorry Rapunzel." He shook his head above her shoulder before looking up towards the frustratingly blue sky. "But we need to fight. Jack always fought."

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><p><strong>AN: I have plans for one more chapter after this one! Trust me on this, and don't give up on the story because Jack is "gone". **


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